The on-demand services Disney +, Hulu and ESPN + together had around 221 million subscriptions at the end of June, as the group announced on Wednesday after the US stock market closed. Disney has thus caught up with the previous streaming market leader Netflix, which recently lost customers and also ended the past quarter with around 221 million user accounts.
“We had an excellent quarter,” announced Disney boss Bob Chapek at the presentation of the balance sheet. Disney+ and ESPN+ in particular flourished with annual growth rates of 31 and 53 percent, respectively, to a good 152 million and almost 23 million subscribers, respectively. Disney’s third streaming service Hulu increased the number of subscriptions by eight percent to around 46 million users. The Disney+ streaming service, which was only launched in November 2019 as a Netflix hunter, gained 14.4 million customers in three months – significantly more than experts expected. Disney+ landed two big hits with the “Star Wars” series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and Marvel’s “Ms. Marvel”.
commercial breaks or higher prices
Disney immediately used the strong demand for the streaming services to initiate sharp price increases. For example, the price for the standard ad-free subscription to Disney+ for customers in the US will increase by $3 to $10.99 per month on December 8th. However, like Netflix, Disney wants to introduce a cheaper version with commercial breaks. This offer is said to cost $7.99 per month – as much as the ad-free subscription used to be. With Hulu, the price goes up by one to two dollars per month, depending on the subscription model. ESPN+ also recently announced a price increase in the US.
Things were also going well financially for the entertainment empire, which also includes the classic cable division as well as film studios, theme parks, holiday resorts and cruise ships. Sales grew 26 percent year-on-year to $21.5 billion. Profit increased by 53 percent to 1.4 billion dollars (1.36 billion euros). The quarterly figures significantly exceeded analysts’ expectations. The share initially reacted after the trading session with a price increase of more than four percent. Disney has recently had a difficult time on Wall Street – the share has been down 28 percent since the beginning of the year.
Source: Nachrichten
